Category Archives: MBA Admissions Book

Here’s is a bit more from MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building To Essay Writing, just released (McGraw Hill Education, 3rd Edition, 2017). It is high-level in this extract, but the nuts and bolts of “the how,” that is, steps to take to concretely achieve the outcomes advised, are in the book too. However, this gives a good idea of the foundational approach…

MBA admissions success turns on the simplest and oldest rule in communications strategy: to win, you need to connect your objectives with those of your audience. You need to understand what your target need to see or is ready to hear, and to increase the overlap between that and what you say. If you are better than the next applicant at demonstrating the common ground between your objectives and the objectives of the MBA program’s admissions committee (Adcom), you are well on your way to getting admitted.

Conveying fit between an item and its target audience is like marketing in the sense that you are selling a value proposition (you) to a consumer-client (the admissions committee) in a situation where the consumer has lots of other choices. You have to understand their needs, wants, and desires so you know what they value and why they value it, and how to pitch your product within this value system. Like any market communicator, you need to research consumer preferences, and coordinate various methods of communication (essays, interviews, recommendations, etc.) to make it clear why you are an attractive and necessary product, so that you get picked off the shelf. You create a coordinated campaign to influence the admissions officers’ “buying” decision, and manage this campaign as it unrolls over weeks or months.

Understanding your admissions task in these terms should turn your application world upside down: it is about you but not just about you. It’s about them, and the overlap between you and them. Companies don’t make products and then try to sell them. They study the market, determine needs, and produce accordingly. When you know what the admissions committee is looking for and listening for, you can almost always find things in your profile that match this.

Staying true to you

There is an important, immediate caveat. Nothing about this market-communications approach implies that you need to or should try to bend yourself into something you are not, or to what you think the mold of the ideal business school applicant is, and “package” yourself as such. There is no such mold. In fact, trying to be the stereotypical candidate puts you right outside the successful profile because Adcom wants and needs a full spread of different, diverse, authentic individuals, not an applicant stereotype. Why? Because business school education is not a pre-packaged set of skills that you are going to be spoon-fed, but thousands of learning events, co-created between faculty and students, and between the students themselves. In such “peer learning,” which is a huge part of MBA education, the scope of experience of the student group directly raises the quality of the learning. Adcom cannot just admit “the best.” They have to balance the incoming cohort for diversity of abilities and experiences in order to provide the best overall peer-learning mix.

Therefore, your first task is always to be highly individualized, authentic, absolutely true to yourself—but once beyond that, then also savvy as to which parts of your unique special selfhood also happen to overlap best with the admissions committee’s needs and preferences. Your application task is one of judicious profile selection and framing for chooser delight, not one self-compromise.

First published on QS TopMBA, June 2017: The MBA admissions process at elite schools is competitive. Invariably, successful applicants beat out other hopefuls who almost always have the goods to succeed as well, but don’t demonstrate value in MBA admissions, or are unable to stand out from the crowd.

How can you ensure you demonstrate value and stand out? It’s well known that MBA admissions looks for academic ability, a professional success record, and leadership potential, etc. But it also looks for other attributes, many of which value personal or organizational attributes within the soft skills, some of which may surprise you. My book, MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building to Essay Writing, records 25 distinct types of value that committees look for in MBA applicants, or respond positively to. The following is five of them:

1. Maturity, professionalism and good judgment

This means a candidate who looks, talks, and acts ‘like a grown-up’. Through your essays and interview, the MBA admissions committee will get a sense of whether you have the personal maturity, diplomacy, and professional polish necessary to succeed at school, in job recruiting, and in life.

Are you poised under pressure? Are you diplomatic under fire? Can you handle responsibility? Do you have ‘senior presence’, or do you come across as a brash kid? Immaturity will be signaled by giveaways such as poor self-restraint, blaming others for your bad calls, showing an inability to see your own weaknesses, or in choosing inappropriate material for your essays. In the era of social media transparency, your claim to maturity could also be undermined by a junior social media presence.

2. Pursuit of meaningful goals

Beyond ambition and the desire to succeed, an MBA admissions committee will be asking, “what do you want to succeed AT?” There is no right or wrong answer. A wide range of career goals are acceptable. But, they will want to understand why you want to do what you want to do. What meaning does it have for you?

Just wanting to ‘succeed’ or ‘make money’ is not enough. That’s assumed. The question is, beyond success, why this path over another one? Also, how might what you do professionally be meaningful for other people, for communities, or for the school itself? Harvard Business School (HBS) has asked matriculating students the following question [taken from the last lines of a poem by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mary Oliver]: “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” You could say you planned to be a hospitality manager or an aviation entrepreneur, or anything. The point is why is this worth spending your one precious life on? Why for you? Better still, why for those around you.

3. Awareness of self and others

Leaders and successful people almost all have good awareness of self and other, meaning they understand themselves well and they are aware of how they come across to others. Sometimes this is called ‘emotional intelligence’ or ‘EQ’.

However you frame it, it belongs to those who understand their own personality attributes and weaknesses and are aware of how this plays out in interactions with others. Put another way, the skill is to be able to ‘read the room’ and understand the people and power dynamics in it, and to be able to influence these dynamics not least by first being aware of how one comes across.

4. Coachability and a continuous learning mentality

Business schools exist to teach, train and prepare professionals for senior management careers. There’s nothing quite as much of a turnoff as an applicant who appears unreceptive to the idea of learning and improving at the hands of faculty, coaches, and peers – which, incidentally, is a lifelong requirement in the modern knowledge economy.

If you appear to know it all already, the business school won’t see room for themselves, and they may see incipient trouble in the classroom and in groupwork as a result of a non-participating mentality.

5. Communication ability

A candidate who can write, speak, and organize ideas well. Financial and technical skills are important, but the most important skill in senior management is communication: The ability to frame, transmit, and negotiate ideas in meetings with clients, staff, investors, regulators, lawyers, industry partners, and other stakeholders.

As a general rule, quantitative skills are the tasks of lower jobs in a business organization. People in the c-suite and on boards spend almost all of their time talking. So, an MBA admissions committee will be looking hard at how well you organize and communicate concepts and ideas, thinking down the line to when you are going to be interviewing in front of an employer, and on and on throughout your career after business school. You can demonstrate value, in terms of your communication abilities, through your verbal GMAT or GRE score as well as in your MBA admissions essays and interview.

MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building to Essay Writing (McGraw-Hill Education) is now out in 3rd edition, 2017. With regular updates to track a fast-changing industry, the book has been #1 or 2 seller in category since first published in 2005, widely valued for its “straight shooter, what-you-should-know style.” To celebrate, here are the first few paragraphs…

With ever-more business schools offering the MBA degree worldwide, and online options quickly getting better, there has never been more ways to get an MBA. But business education is an area where brand really matters. Graduates from the top-25 or so elite programs start higher, progress faster, and have much more senior and interesting careers. Whatever the degree costs, those exiting the elite institutions reap many times the investment in their lifetimes. It’s dumb not to aim as high as possible.

Of course, everyone else knows this too, which is why MBA admissions at the top level is so competitive. Figures vary with the economic cycle, but on average across the most competitive programs, about six of every seven applications fail.

But, here’s the quick and dirty secret: nobody fails at elite business schools. Every year, in every program, everyone graduates­, possibly excluding a handful of extreme cases where a student has had serious adjustment or disciplinary problems and was excluded early. In other words, every candidate who is admitted will graduate because they were admitted. In fact, the better the school’s reputation, the less exams or grades appear to matter. If you were good enough to get in, you’re good enough, period.

In other words, while MBA degree failure is very unusual, MBA application failure is the norm. What this means is the MBA application is, for all practical purposes, the final exam. Admission is the only real hurdle between the candidate and an elite MBA qualification, and the fast-track career good fortune it commonly represents.

But real people pass it

Part of business school culture, one quickly learns, is that the MBA is not an “academic” degree. Smart people are required, of course, but you will repeatedly hear how the most intelligent people don’t make the best managers or business leaders. This explains why admissions is often refused to “brainiac” academicians and those with 750+ GMATs, and offered instead to candidates with diverse experience, personality, talent, and drive. Admissions committees (Adcoms) reward dynamic people who have a track record of real-world impact, particularly if they have meaningful plans for the future.

This means that anyone of appropriate age, with respectable undergraduate results and standardized test scores and a good professional record, has a realistic chance of getting into an elite business school, assuming they also have the strategic and competitive understanding of what in their background is valuable for admission and the ability to communicate their case clearly and powerfully.

Yes, the top business schools have their pick of Olympic medalists and Senators’ sons, and there’s nothing much you can do about that, but every year many thousands of very ordinary people are accepted too, because they applied well. Which is to say, they found and compellingly communicated the valuable attributes in their background and connected these closely to the needs of business schools and the preferences of admissions officers.

Getting in is a little bit about pure intelligence or family luck, and a lot about procedural and organizational smarts. The tools and techniques of admissions matter enormously. You don’t need to be a celebrity. You just need to be credible and to apply well.

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Welcome to The MBA Admissions Studio, an elite business school admission support service for MBA applicants. Having done this since 2002, let's simply say there are no tricks, short cuts, or secret handshakes for getting in. The only thing that works is a compelling statement of your word as a candidate. This site provides the tools to develop and present your competitive value.

MBA Studio’s Book

MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building to Essay Writing, by Avi Gordon, is a McGraw-Hill bestseller, now in its 3rd Edition (2017). It is widely acclaimed as the best resource for MBA applicants. See reviews.

Avi Gordon, Director of MBA Studio, is an accredited member of the Association. of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), the oversight and credentialing body in the graduate admissions field, and practices according to the standards and ethics of the association.

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"[I] would like to share some good news with you - I got an offer from CBS and am really grateful to your helpful advice to my application essay. Columbia is my dream school and I'm glad I could make it with your help." — admitted to Columbia

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"Hi Avi, Got the great news this morning--HBS called me to tell me I was accepted. Thanks for all of your help throughout the process! The waitlist was nerve-wracking, but at the end of the day, I am happy as can be with the final result." — admitted to HBS

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[Oct 13] "Hi Avi, Just wanted to let you know that I have just got invited to interview with Columbia! This is really fast, my app has only been under review for a couple of days...I just wanted to thank you for your help! Will keep you posted. Thanks!"
[Nov 10] "Just got a call from Columbia informing me that I got admitted! Again, thanks a lot for your help." — admitted to Columbia.

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— admitted to INSEAD and IESE

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Just wanted to let you know that all our hard work has paid off. I got accepted to Wharton-Lauder. Very excited to start the program in May. Thanks again for all your hard work, dedication and patience. It has been great working with you, and I am sure it made a huge difference. Who else can you torment with so many re-dos of like 10 essays?! All the best to you!
— admitted to Wharton-Lauder

Applicant:
"Hi Avi, How are you doing? I received an email today from HKUST, they informed that I have been successful in my application and they will send out an offer letter in the next few weeks. I can not express my joy at the moment and I want to thank you so much for all your help and guidance throughout the selection process, especially since I was so last minute. I have already referred you to my brother-in-law who has expressed a desire to undertake an EMBA for the following year. I know he will learn a lot from you. Thanks again for everything."— admitted to HKUST.

Applicant:
"Hello Avi, I wanted to update you ... I was admitted at Oxford! Thank you very much for your help, I wouldn't have made it without you! I am very satisfied, the school will open me a lot of opportunities :) Thanks again for your key contribution." — admitted to Saïd Oxford

Applicant:
"I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I've been accepted at ESSEC's MBA in Luxury Brand Management! I got the call from Paris last week, after flying there for my interview last month. It was quite an experience, but I got through it and they have given me a place. Term starts in Sept, so I will be off to Paris end August. I'm ecstatic with the news and have lots of planning to do. But I just wanted to thank you for your help in my application. It was great working with you." — admitted to ESSEC.

Applicant:
"I just wanted to let you know that I was offered admission to Cornell and [my husband] to Columbia so we are both very happy that we got in and of course that we'll be starting school in the fall. Thanks again for helping us."— admitted to Cornell and Columbia.

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"Hello Avi, I just got admitted to the Kellogg MBA program. I just wanted to thank you for your time and effort in polishing my essays. I will be sure to leave a testimonial on your website."— admitted to Kellogg.

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"I have got some great news. I have been admitted at IESE! You were a great help on this. Really, you and and your book were of huge help! So, thanks again." — admitted to IESE.

Applicant:
"How's it going? I've been meaning to update you on my application. I was accepted without an interview for the January term at Columbia. I am now finishing most of my medical requirements and will begin the business school in January. Thanks for helping me with the essays. They must have been big b/c I was accepted about 3 weeks after submitting." — admitted to Columbia.

Applicant:
"Avi - I am very thankful to you for your help during the essay writing process. It was fun to work with you and even though I did not get into Wharton, I got into Berkeley which is awesome. Your straight forwardness and the interview prep were the two signature components of your services that I feel helped me shape my story and my interviews. Thanks again." — admitted to Haas Berkeley and Ross Michigan.

Applicant:
"Hi Avi, Just wanted to let you know, I have been admitted to the McCombs MBA at DFW. I wanted to write to you and thank you for all the advice and the adcom perspective I learned from you. Your help with the 3 essays and the recommendation letters were top notch and I believe they were the key differentiators, helping me to get into the program, especially the 3rd essay where I had to explain reasons around my past academic mistakes. Thank you again for all you did for me, I hope this MBA program will be a great step ahead for my career!" — admitted to McCombs.

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Hey Avi – I wanted to let you know that I was accepted into Columbia. Thanks for your feedback and comments throughout the process, they were very helpful." — admitted to Columbia.

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The MBA Admissions Studio has hundreds of satisfied clients. Below are some samples of applicant feedback. These are 100% genuine reports, exactly as written by clients. The MBA Admissions Studio stands ready to demonstrate the veracity of these comments, and the schools' acceptances, if required.

Applicant:
"Thank you so much for all your help through the application process! I appreciated your honesty when an essay topic was not resonating and your ability to coax a better, more detailed story, out of me. It has all paid off, I have been admitted to Wharton, MIT, Kellogg and Duke (Columbia is still pending)!!! I am incredibly thrilled and humbled by all of this. Now I have a tough, but good decision to make!"
Postscript:
"I actually ended up withdrawing the Columbia application. (because) I decided to go to Wharton! I'm super excited and nervous. I'm heading up to Philly this weekend to find an apartment. Can you believe that I have to be on campus August 1st? That is so soon!" — admitted to Wharton, MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Duke

Applicant:
"Avi, I am admitted to NYU Stern! I am absolutely thrilled!! Finally, I am going somewhere after two years of trying. Thank you very much for your profiling editing service and advice on my reapplication. I know I could not have done it without your help. Once again thanks very much and I will keep you posted on other results."— admitted to NYU Stern

Applicant:
"Hey Avi, Just heard back from HBS. Fortunately it was positive ;). Will give it a week or two to sink in but everything points to Boston this fall. Anyways, super thanks for your help - both in coaching and on the essays. Was really helpful and I'm sure it strengthened my odds in the process. Will definitely recommend you to friends applying next year. Again, thanks!" — admitted to HBS.

Applicant:
"It was wonderful to work with you and I recommend you to anyone who asks. When I start, I will have an MIT blog this Fall and will put a link to you as well, to say:
'Avi Gordon has been instrumental when I applied to MIT Sloan School of Management. I got into MIT!! I also later got accepted into Wharton, Hopkins, and other top schools!n Avi helped develop my personal narrative and as I am already a physician and working professional, I can tell you his advice and approach was STILL invaluable. I bought the whole package and it was the best $$ I ever spent! I start at Sloan this Summer and I cannot wait.'" — admitted to MIT Sloan, Wharton, John Hopkins.

Applicant:
Avi, thought I would close the loop and let you know that I was admitted to the Yale SOM program and have decided to attend next fall. I wanted to let you know that I was very impressed with your services. You lived up to expectations with your concise, no holds-barred approach to feedback that was always returned in a timely manner. You drastically helped me increase the quality of my essays both in terms of content and prose, making my overall candidacy much stronger. — admitted to Yale S.O.M.

Applicant:
"Hello Avi, I just wanted to send you a quick update on my plan for business school this fall. As you know, I applied to the [withheld] round at Tuck. I was accepted and have decided to attend! I couldn't be more excited about going back to Dartmouth and am looking forward to my two years at business school. Thank you so much for all of your guidance during the business school process. I truly appreciated your insights." — admitted to Tuck-Dartmouth, Cornell-Johnson, Georgetown-McDonough

Applicant:
"I wanted to share this great news with you. I've been accepted to IESE Business school!! I just got the acceptance mail today. I wanted to thank you for all the help and support that you gave me during the application process. I can definitely say that without your expert guidance in the application, I could not have achieved this. So thank you so much. Please give me a call if you are in the NYC area as i definitely owe you a drink!!" — admitted to IESE and NUS

Applicant:
"Avi, I was accepted to Columbia today after yesterday's phone conversation with the director of the Healthcare program. Thank you so much for all the push and all the suggestions." — admitted to Columbia

Applicant:
"You are splendid, magnificent, excellent! I cannot find the proper word to express how much I appreciate your valuable help to me. You are so good! I have updated based on ALL your suggestions... Hey, you can really make a difference. Very strong leadership ;) ...Your advice is my MBA bible! I think you really have the sharp eye for MBA applications. I really appreciate your valuable points. You are a really great mentor on my MBA applications.... Thank you once again for your great help! Thank you thank you thank you!." — (amalgam of emails from one client) admitted to Wharton.

Applicant:
"I'm in Wharton, but hey it's not finished yet. I still need to write two essays to apply for scholarships. Can you believe that?? Another two essays! I'm dying :P Will keep you updated.... btw yesterday I received the offer from NYU Stern - perhaps the last offer. Just cannot thank you enough for your great work!" — admitted to Wharton, Chicago GSB, Columbia, and NYU Stern

Applicant:
"Avi, Good news: I am accepted at HBS!! Thanks a lot for your support. I did not make it to Stanford though (but does not really matter now!). Enjoy the holidays." — admitted to HBS.

Applicant:
"Hi Avi, I just wanted to let you know that my application to MIT was success. Your guidance helped me move through the application processes quickly and confidently. I'm very thankful for your help and I'm looking forward to starting at Sloan!" — admitted to MIT Sloan

Applicant:
"Avi - Words can't express how grateful I am. I just got accepted to Stern!!!! You made the difference between sending in average essays and great essays. Your comments were on point and kept me focused. I'd recommend you to anyone. Thank you, again." — admitted to NYU Stern

Applicant:
"Avi, I wanted to let you know that I recieved an offer for LBS's EMBA. Thank you for all your help and advice on the Essay's as well as the Resume, it help me polish my application, focus my essays and taylor my resume towards business school and LBS. I also appreciated the flexibility in MBA Studio's services which allowed me to target specifically the areas where I needed advice." — admitted to LBS EMBA.

Applicant:
"I actually received my acceptance letter to the master’s program at the Cornell School last Wednesday! I am thrilled to have been accepted. I actually started my online pre-courses this afternoon. I have never been more excited to start school! I just wanted to thank you again for all of your help during this stressful experience. Your insight and guidance were invaluable and I attribute my acceptance to your help." — admitted to Cornell.

Applicant:
"I am glad that I chose the right service to guide me through the application process. With [your] help, I completed my applications with confidence and enthusiasm. It has been a challenging, yet rewarding experience!" — admitted to Kellogg.

Applicant:
"Hi Avi, I am sorry I just didn't update you after you had helped me with INSEAD Exec Essays! I have been busy ever since and a lot lot has happened in between…Thanks to you I had got a interview call, and thereafter earned final admission offer for Abu Dhabhi Campus." — Admitted to INSEAD EMBA

Applicant:
"Hi, Sorry for the delay in the response, I took some time off my essays. Actually, I hired [competitor service - name withheld by MBA Studio] and I thought they were really bad. So I tried your free trial offer to help me benefit from a basis to establish my judgment towards them. Your feedback was so appreciated that I negotiated with them to get reimbursed, which I did in part. My Harvard and INSEAD packages are with them (could not be reimbursed) but let's get started with my other essays." — Montreal, Canada.